My Take: Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Star Wars: Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

My Take

Before I Give My Take

• Yes, that's right. I'm adding the "Episode VIII" part to the title. Perhaps it's OCD talking.
  

• My first viewing was on Thursday, December 14 at the Boston Commons AMC.
  

• Because of travel and lots of traffic I couldn't eat dinner after already having skipped lunch. The popcorn line was incredibly long. I tried to stay in the line while the trailer was playing but I barely made any headway before the movie was about to start. Needless to say, my first viewing was a very interesting one as me and my brother both sat in our chairs pretty starving but ready to survive this 2 1/2 hours.

• I don't know what it was (perhaps it was our famished state) but I went into this movie with a completely open mind and was ready to consume this movie with no preconceived notions. I feel this was worth saying because I am a pretty die hard Star Wars fan and you know how those types can get.
  

• Of course I loved the original trilogy as well as the prequel trilogy (That's right. I love both!) and as a result I see Episodes I-VI (and The Clone Wars) as one big saga. It's all George Lucas' story to me. He conceived it so in my mind he makes all of the rules. And if he changes some then it doesn't matter because every artist in every medium always changes their mind.

• These new films of the Disney era don't have much if any Lucas input in them so I view it like this: If you're favorite band sold their name and now you have this band with a whole new lineup but yet the same name, the music style may be very similar in design but the ideas are going to be different. It may still be great but differences exist between the two lineups. Its the same thing when a TV Show recasts (Like Scrubs' season 9) or gets new showrunners (The Walking Dead). 

• With that analogy in mind, I don't let it ruin my experience with these new movies. Not in the least. Ever since I was a kid, every time I go to the movie theater I always think to myself "Man, this is all pretty cool, but it would be awesome if I were watching a new Star Wars movie". Disney basically fulfilled that wish for me with a new stream of Star Wars movies. 
  
  
  
  
  
  

• To me, it's similar to the old Expanded Universe (that is now not considered canon). Lucas would always barely have anything to do with those stories but some of them were some of the greatest Star Wars stories ever told (Zahn's Trilogy, Shadows of the Empire and KOTOR just to name a few). I look at these new films in a similar light. Anything goes but ultimately episodes I-VI are king to me. 

• It's also no sense for me to constantly pine to have George back. He's sold his company, gave the money to charity and focused his reality on his family so from this point forward it's just best for me to view these movies as a form of expanded universe for this new age. (Consider bringing Ben Burtt back into the fold though. Some of the classic Star Wars sounds don't sound like they used to).

• I think all of the aforementioned points probably helped me better receive The Last Jedi better than some of the other fanbase did. 

• So without further preamble, here's my take.

My Take
This will be a very detailed, scene-by-scene affair

SPOILERS AHEAD but frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

• I really enjoyed the crawl. I thought it did a great job of letting you know the current state of things in the galaxy despite The Force Awakens literally having just ended before this one.
  

• John Williams did an incredible job with the soundtrack. I'm a sucker for call-backs and right off the bat, after the crawl is done, you wonder in what direction the camera will pan. It pans down and all you hear are the first few notes from the A New Hope score. That was definitely welcome.
  

• Then the camera zooms in from a distance through all of the ships in space over D'Qar and right into the space battle. The camerawork was unlike anything else I've seen from a Star Wars movie before and it let me know that I was definitely in for something different with this film.

• This film had a lot of modern-day 2017 humor and right from the beginning as Poe and Hux go back and forth with Poe "holding for Hux". I knew that the humor was unlike any we've seen up this point but I didn't mind it. It got a lot of laughs in the theater.
  

• Some call this opening scene the space battle but when you compare it to prior space battles, it's really just more of an attack run with the bombers trying to unleash their payload but all getting obliterated. I dug Paige's sacrifice and definitely thought that she had missed the bomb remote (along with all of the other gasping patrons in my theater).

• Shout out to Mark Lewis Jones as Captain Canady. That guy was straight out of the bridge of a Star Destroyer from The Empire Strikes Back. Just a great performance albeit brief.
  

• This was a heavy opening sequence. The comedy segment between Poe and Hux (which was reminiscent of Poe and Kylo Ren's interaction in The Force Awakens) made me think that this would be a successful attack run for The Resistance with them just leaving The First Order with egg over all of their faces. That wasn't the case though. General Leia, with a relieved expression on her face, gives Poe the order to get everyone out of there but then Poe insists on taking out the First Order Dreadnought and immediately I smell the inevitable obliteration coming.
  

• Although the Dreadnought is destroyed, Poe suffers heavy casualties because of his decision and his colleagues definitely don't let him hear the end of it.

• They make the jump to hyperspace and Finn wakes out of his coma. I found it funny when he started basically sleepwalking around with all of his medical gear still attached with water flying everywhere. It got a laugh when BB-8 pointed it out and Poe was like "Finn? Naked, bag, water?"
  

• The FIRST thing that Finn says (or asks) is "Where's Rey" since the last time he saw her she was in a heated lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren.

• It cuts right to the end of The Force Awakens with Rey handing Luke his father's lightsaber. What happens next is one of the biggest points of contention with this movie and that is that Luke simply tosses the legendary lightsaber over his shoulder. The hardcore fan in me was outraged but as a whole, I knew this was part of Luke's arc and if that was the case then chucking the blue saber off the cliff and onto some unsuspecting porgs was understandable to me.
  

• Now, if this (and some of the other twists in this movie) was done as a way to send a message to the fans to stop over-analyzing everything then I think it was a gross misstep. However, I have faith and give Rian Johnson the benefit of the doubt here.
  

• Rey tries to get Luke to join the fight against the First Order but he continuously refuses. He asks her if she really expected him to walk out with a laser sword to face the entire First Order before telling her to go away.

• Rey hears the faintest disembodied voices and wanders inside an ancient tree that house old Jedi texts. Luke finds her there and she reveals how something (the force) inside her has awakened that has always been there and she's lost and she doesn't know what to do. Luke tells her that she needs a teacher but he can't teach her because it's time for the Jedi to end.
  

• It was fun to see Luke's everyday activities like fishing. However, I could have done without milking that creature but Luke's face after drinking a hearty gulp or two of that milk made up for it. It was then taken away by that awkward look that the creature gives Rey.
  

• Later when Luke won't answer his door for Rey and it flies open, I immediately thought that it was Rey blowing off the door with the force which would have demonstrated that "raw power" to Luke that he talks about fearing a little later. However, that wouldn't have made much sense since she was there trying to learn. As it turns out, it was Chewie who blew open the door and once again showed off his great strength. He nailed Kylo with a direct hit to the gut, ripped off Unkar Plott's arm in The Force Awakens and he blows off doors in The Last Jedi. What's next for him in Episode IX? Does he save someone who is trapped under a crashed ship by lifting it up with his powerful wookie strength?
  

• Although Han Solo is symbolized with the golden die later in the film, he's only vocally mentioned by Luke here who asks Chewie where he is before putting two and two together. I don't think that there was a scene where Luke took a second to digest that major loss.

• Next up is the scene where Leia demotes Poe and they find out that the First Order can track them through hyperspace with new tech. Interesting note on that, in Rogue One when Jyn Erso is searching the Imperial files for the physical Death Star plans she names off various projects. One of those projects was hyperspace tracking. So the Empire has been working on this technology since some time before the Battle of Yavin.
  

• With Resistance numbers dwindling, this attack by the First Order becomes much more intense. They suffered heavy losses with the loss of Starkiller Base but they have the opportunity here to wipe out the Resistance entirely. Because of this, this chase scene gave me an immense sense of urgency.

• We see Snoke talk about how he thought that Kylo was something truly special and how with the potential of his bloodline he could be a new Vader. Snoke fears that he was mistaken, tells him to "take that ridiculous thing off" as if he had been watching UHF and says that he sees Kylo's father's heart in him. Kylo insists that he's given everything (including killing his father) to Snoke and the dark side and Snoke points out that the deed split Kylo's spirit to the bone and that unbalance caused him to lose to a girl who never even held a lightsaber. Kylo failed. 
  

• Kylo then removes his cape and looks like he's ready to lunge at Snoke who forces Kylo down with force lightning like it was nothing. What interests me here is that this pairing of Snoke and Kylo obviously draws parallels from Sidious and Vader. However, I don't think we've ever seen Vader outright challenge Sidious like Kylo seems to have briefly challenged Snoke here. 

• Kylo exits and is in some DEEP thought in the elevator. He smashes his helmet and along with it all of the things of the past like Snoke, Vader and the Sith.
  

• When Kylo mentions later that the Sith are one of the things that need to die, I kind of think that he's referring to Vader because in canon Snoke and Kylo are not Sith. Perhaps by killing Han, Kylo thinks that the deed fully committed him to the dark side. There was a visual in that catwalk scene in The Force Awakens where the sun was eclipsed and fully engulfed Kylo's face in darkness that backed up my thought. His seeds of dissent against Snoke here only stoke Kylo's darkness further. The dark side always craves the power...
  

• Kylo jumps in his fighter and attacks the Resistance fleet. He has that moment where he knows that his mother is on the bridge of the capital ship, hesitates and decides against pulling the trigger. Throughout all of Kylo's insistence that he has fully given himself to the dark side because of aforementioned reasons, he proves Snoke's point here. Kylo's father's heart shines through in him and prevents him from firing on Leia. This was Kylo Ren's only light side moment in the film and it's a very considerable one. I'm led to believe that no matter what dark deeds Kylo carries out, there will always be the faintest glimmer of light in him. I think that conflict will always exist as long as Leia lives and I think that the only way that he can truly give himself completely to the dark side is to gather the will to kill his mother and then snuff out Luke, Rey and broom boy. (More on him later).
  

• His two TIE escorts fire on the bridge, many crew members (like Admiral Ackbar) are killed and Leia is sucked out into space (I thought for a second that it was her write-off as well). There is a look on Kylo's face here very similar to the one he had after he killed Han. One of regret. 
  

• This sequence is one of the instances where this film raises a new question when it comes to Kylo's redeemability. Either his mother is what will save him or his mother is what will seal him into the darkness. At least that's how I'm led to feel here.

• Leia is out in the coldness of space and uses the force to fly herself back to the ship in what was one of the handful of controversial scenes. I didn't have a problem with it. I rather enjoyed it and I think it resonated with me because this was the one time in all of the films where you actually see her use the force. Some people gripe that she may have looked weird in this scene but imagine Leia in a lightsaber battle (which is something that many have wanted to see for years in this sequel trilogy) at her age and tell me that it wouldn't be something that would come off very similar-looking. 

• It's night time on Ach-To and Chewie is about to chow down on some rotisserie porg. However, a flock of porg keep making sad eyes at him every time he's about to take a bite. Chewie's a legendary bad ass but he's also got a heart so he doesn't eat...but the camera does cut away so it's entirely possible that Chewie could have grunted "fuck this" in Shyriiwook and started chowing down. He's already killed it and cooked it!
  

• Luke steps inside the falcon for the first time on-screen since the ending of The Empire Strikes Back. He grabs the die from the cockpit and sits down at the Dejarik table. R2 powers on and Luke lets out an overjoyed greeting at his old buddy. Luke wishes that he could make R2 understand but he's not coming back. R2 plays Princess Leia's help message to Obi-Wan in A New Hope. R2 seems to successfully be tugging at Luke's heartstrings because he calls this a "cheap move" on R2's part. Luke is clearly a different Luke in this film than he was in since we last saw him in Return of the Jedi. You would probably expect this new Luke to treat R2 like a jerk but shades of young Luke shine through here when he catches up with his old buddy, R2. It feels like they've never lost a step.
  

• The camera cuts to Rey sleeping and Luke standing over her. He tells her that at sunrise he will begin to train Rey with three lessons on the Jedi and why they need to end.

• The Resistance fleet are informed that their leadership (including Admiral Ackbar) have been destroyed and Leia is the only survivor. Ackbar kind of had a cameo role in The Force Awakens and he has a similar role here. I wish that they could have used him a little more here. Perhaps use him in a similar capacity to how Raddus was used in Rogue One. Ackbar in an OG and he was treated like one hell of an afterthought here. I realize that the new Holdo character took precedence but I would have had Ackbar be the one to...do a certain feat of utter ballsyness that occurs a little later.
  

• Finn wants to get off the seemingly doomed ship to get the Leia/Rey homing beacon away from the first order and to find Rey and make sure that she's safe. He runs into Rose in the escape pod bays and she's there mourning the loss of her sister, Paige. They have a humorous meeting scene and then mull over The First Order's new tracking tech.

• I didn't mind the Finn/Rose scenes. I rather enjoyed them. However, I did find myself waiting for the Rey/Kylo/Luke/Snoke scenes whenever they were on.
  

• I enjoyed Holdo in this movie. At first I thought that they were going to make her the new Leia as far as the politics went but I found that she grew on me the pretty fast. I can't lie to you though. I associate her face with Ellie the paleobotanist from Jurassic Park so it was fun seeing her in the Star Wars environment.
  

• One thing that this film doesn't really touch on is the politics. The First Order's Starkiller Base just obliterated the Hosnian System that was the capital of the Republic. The First Order lost Starkiller Base itself so a power vacuum is there that could have been addressed better in this movie. The politics of the prequels are always often maligned by some fans and critics alike (I enjoyed them) so I get the feeling that Rian Johnson didn't want to include politics in this movie, perhaps for fear of fan backlash which would be ironic.
  

• Maz Kanata pops in for a brief moment to tell Finn and Rose who they need to track down, a master codebreaker wearing a red lapel. I was hoping for more Maz in this movie. Especially with her tease in The Force Awakens of "Another story for another time". I guess the time wasn't now.
  

• While were on the subject of supporting characters, when I was a little boy in the mid 90s watching the original trilogy on the USA Network, I would always daydream about an Episode VII and one of the things I would dream about was the fate of Boba Fett. I always figured that with an Episode VII we'd get to know his fate. No such luck as of yet in this post-TLJ world. The canon books "Aftermath" strongly hint that someone had found his armor on Tatooine but nothing about the man himself. So I guess that door's still open.
  

• We're introduced to the first force-skype session between Kylo and Rey. Kylo notes how she couldn't possibly be doing this because the effort would kill her and how she can see his surroundings but he can't see hers. 
  

• Rey begins her first lesson and it's very Karate Kid-esque as Luke tells her to reach out with her feelings to which she actually reaches her hand out. Luke rolls his eyes and trolls Rey by touching her with a leaf and making her believe that she was feeling the force before slapping her hand and correcting her. 
  

• He tells her that the force is about more than just lifting rocks. She starts to feel the force in her surroundings and inside herself as we see some camera cuts that illustrate what she sees (a first in a Star Wars film). Luke teaches her that the force is about balance and it isn't owned by the Jedi. To say that if a Jedi dies then the light dies is vanity.

• Rey starts to feel something else...darkness below the island. It starts calling to her. She can't resist it and Luke can't snap her out of it. She has what I can only assume is some sort of dark side vision as Luke stands appalled that she went "straight for the dark". It tried to show her something she needed and she didn't even try to stop herself. He walks off as Rey points out that she didn't sense anything from him and asks if he cut himself off from the force. Luke says that he's seen this raw power only once before in Ben Solo, it didn't scare him then but it does now.
  

• Now it's time for Cantonica. You may not recognize the planet name but you'll likely recognize the city of Canto Bight. This scene was this movie's Maz Castle. You walk into the casino and the film goes into "Hey look, it's a modern day cantina scene!". Although I did enjoy the scene, it did take me out of the Star Wars universe. I think it was because there was nothing familiar about it. Up to this point we've never visited a casino in the Star Wars universe and all of the alien patrons inside the bar were all of unfamiliar species. An addition of a Twi'lek, Rodian, Bith or even Devaronian would have better rooted the scene inside of our all-too familiar universe. In addition, when the camera went to pan over to the racetrack, me and my brother jumped up in our seats in excitement because for just one second we thought that we would see the return of a podrace. That would have also served to better root this scene inside this universe.
  

• I do understand Rian Johnson's (and JJ Abrams' in The Force Awakens) decision to use a new crop of alien characters. It was clear that they wanted fans to relive that first time that we all watched A New Hope's cantina scene with utter wonderment. It may have worked on a smaller scale but what it does more of is simply disconnect these sequel trilogy films from the first six. We're now 2/3 into this trilogy and we've only seen Sullustans and Mon Calamari. Just a personal gripe, I suppose.
  

• I must admit, DJ was my favorite background character in this film. I loved it all, his demeanor, his stutter, his swagger, all of it. I've been saying "bippity boppity bloop" ad nauseum since I first saw the film.

• It was a little convenient for Finn and Rose to conveniently bump into another slicer shortly after failing to meet the master codebreaker. Perhaps the master codebreaker wouldn't have sold them out.
  

• Finn and Rose are imprisoned over a parking violation (Jeez, law enforcement don't take any shit on Canto Bight). They meet DJ who agree to help them escape and enter old man Snoke's boudoir. Finn and Rose meet a group of oppressed child labor workers who help them escape on some freaky-looking horse-like creatures called fathiers.

• There's a shot of Finn and Rose escaping on the fathier on beach against the light of the moon that was a really amazing visual.

• I get that the film didn't have enough time to stay in Space Monte Carlo but a longer stay may have added more of a purpose for that trip. Maybe a scene where they actually meet the master codebreaker and he just wants nothing to do with them. That would make DJ a more vital character.
  

• Although I didn't mind Canto Bight as a whole, it is definitely the part of the movie where it feels like I'm simply waiting to see any scenes with Snoke/Kylo/Rey/Luke.

• Meanwhile on Ach-To, Rey wanders into (or more accurately, falls into) the dark side cave. She looks at the mirror-wall as the film now shows Rey standing in a long line with only her in it. I'm assuming that the Reys behind her are her past and the ones in front are her future.
  

• She asks the wall who her parents are and it shows her two silhouettes that meld into one silhouette that turns out to be just her reflection. It basically tells her what Kylo (a dark side user) was telling her and it is reminiscent of Luke's failure in the Dagobah dark side cave where he decapitated Vader and it turned out to be a reflection of himself. As far as The Last Jedi goes, I feel that this was just a way to tell the fans that it doesn't matter where she came from.
  

• However, it was a dark side cave just like the one in 'Empire' and that vision of Luke becoming Vader never happened since Luke remained on the light side. If Rey remains on the light side then will we get a different answer in Episode IX when it comes to her parents?

• Now it's time to talk out the Kylo/Luke flashback scene. It sort of parallels Anakin's fall to the dark side as the cause of the fall was caused by a regretful and tragic moment (Luke very briefly considering nepoticide). However, Luke talks about how the dark side had already taken hold of Kylo but the film doesn't tell you why or what was exactly was going on in Kylo. We know how Sidious seduced Anakin to the dark side but we don't know jack about Snoke and Kylo. Almost as if something so important held little to no consequence to these film makers. It almost felt like Ben Solo caught a dark side cold from a guy called Snoke at his job.
  

• One of the nuggets of info we received here was that Kylo Ren burned down Luke's temple and took some students with him. Are those the Knights of Ren? This feels a lot like when the term of "Sith" was first introduced after A New Hope's release. Everyone was like what in the heck is a Sith?

• So far with this sequel trilogy it seems like it does a great job of raising questions to very cryptic and mysterious topics but when the time comes to answer or at least shed some light on the topic, they tell you that the answer doesn't matter (Rey's parents, Snoke's backstory and how he seduced Ben Solo, Maz finding Luke's lightsaber, etc). There's still a chance that Episode IX might answer a lot of questions so I'll reserve judgment for now.

• Rey holding her own against Luke was a little bit of a disconnect to me. Here's this girl who hasn't on been on this grand adventure for too long holding her own against one of the greatest Jedi that ever lived. You could make a case that with his age and the fact that he had cut himself off from the force he was a little off his game. With that said, I LOOOVED how she went to knock him down and he caught himself with the force so he wouldn't full fledge fall on his ass. That little detail was just incredible. THAT's the bad ass Luke that I know!
  

• Here's Rey and here's Kylo. Two abandoned and cast off souls searching for belonging. Rey feels that redeeming Kylo is the way to go if Luke won't return to the fight and Luke is trying to tell her that this isn't going to go like it did with Luke redeeming his father. Rey has no other choice. If Luke won't return then she must.

• Rey takes off to meet Kylo as Luke heads to the tree temple to burn it down. As he heads to the tree, little green, ethereal ears pop up in front of the camera as Yoda appears before Luke. I perked right up in my chair as my theater roared in approval of the appearance of the Jedi master. This was a hell of a scene. Luke goes to burn the tree down but doesn't do it right away as Yoda pretty much silently calls Luke's bluff on this and calls upon a lightning bolt to actually set this tree ablaze.
  

• Yoda tells Luke that it's time for him to look past an old pile of books. Luke protests this book-burning (which really exposes his bluff from earlier) and protests by yelling out "THE SACRED JEDI TEXTS!". Yoda makes one of those classic Yoda noises and asks Luke if he's read them which it appears that he hasn't particularly read all of them because as Yoda said "Page turners, they were not". Rey fucked off with the sacred texts anyway and she already knows that which she needs. Luke may have lost Ben Solo but they mustn't lose Rey. After what happened to Ben Solo, Luke can't be what she needs him to be. Yoda teaches Luke that failure is as good of a teacher as anything and that the true burden of masters is that they are what their students grow beyond.

• This was such a terrific scene. There was no disconnect here. Luke and Yoda's chemistry was just like it was back on Dagobah. Here's hoping that we see him again.

• And now it's time talk about...the throne room scene. How in blazes can I do it justice? Easy. I just won't. Snoke basically tries to turn Rey and gives up rather easily when he declares that her heart is 100% pure Jedi. Because of this, Snoke decides to keep Kylo and uses Rey as a test for him to prove himself to the dark side. Snoke's intensity increases as he begins to telegraph to me that he's the one who's about to be killed and sure enough, he's Darth Mauled right in half. (There's our hand amputation!)
  

• Here's this guy with dark side force powers that are even more impressive than Palpatine's, he's using powers we've either never seen or haven't seen to this degree, and he's easily bamboozled and killed. 
  

• I'll be honest here, I thought that Kylo had turned. I was thinking "How on Earth can this be after that hell of a deed of him killing Han?". But Rey was probably like "I don't care what you did, I just want you redeemed. If I have to pay for your counseling then I will. Just stop being evil".

• Then comes Kylo and Rey teaming up to take out the Praetorian guards in what is the closest we'll probably come with this movie in terms of a lightsaber duel. I suppose you could look at this as the force acting in balance with the light and the dark working together. The original trilogy sort of defines balance as the absence of the dark side so that probably wasn't the case here. Regardless, this was hands down one of the coolest scenes in the movie.
  

• Some of the death scenes for these Praetorian guards were just awesome. Specifically the one where Rey throws Kylo her lightsaber and he activates it right in front of one of the guard's heads. I'm pretty sure the Praetorian guards were faceless because you couldn't have death scene like that for people with faces. I guess because you could make a case that these guards weren't humans.

• With Snoke and the guards dealt with, Rey is ready to leave and take Kylo to the redeemed house for troubled Jedi but Kylo is staring at the throne. Staring at the power. Craving for the power because that's what the dark side does. Kylo asks Rey to join him. Together they can bring a new order to the galaxy. Strong shades of Vader here for Kylo. 
  

• The "new order" part is definitely interesting. I'm sure that what he has in mind is nothing more than another version of the same dark side. Also, does he see the First Order as something from the past that needs to die? Or is it still cool since the Empire pre-dates it? 

• At any rate, he's trying to recruit Rey and tells her 'please' in a way that you can see just how much conflict there still might be within him. However as far as conflict went, Vader/Anakin was focused on walking towards the light where Kylo is more focused on walking further into darkness. This was one of the scenes that I find to be really pivotal. A Reddit user by the name of Fordprefect48 summed this "join me" scene marvelously: 

"That single word ("Please") says a ton about the characterization of Ben Solo / Kylo Ren, and Adam Driver's performance when saying it only seals the deal. It captures the character's ongoing turmoil, of his hatred towards all the old shit but we can feel that he is still unsure of what he just did, and he truly wants Rey to join because she's the only one that might understand, it captures that he is actually afraid of doing this alone.

That single word also removes Kylo Ren from the "you are beneath me" attitude that we get either from Vader telling Luke to join him or Palpatine persuading Anakin to join the dark side. It makes Kylo's struggle and motivation feel real. He took the bet that Rey would want to join him when he killed Snoke.

Also, to me it makes the last "force bridge" scene between Rey and Ben near the end of the movie that much sadder with the way Ben looks up at Rey just for Rey to close the Millenium Falcon ramp presumably ending any chance of Rey joining Kylo Ren on his struggle. I really hope JJ takes this unsure relationship between Rey and Kylo Ren to interesting places in the next installment.

From that single word I can feel that he's still the same young inexperienced force user who is disappointed of his supposed master and uncle."

• Just some awesome insight there. It's awesome how so much emotion and so much turmoil can be capped off with just one word.

• In The Force Awakens, it seemed as though Rey had surpassed Kylo in terms of force power by besting him in the dark forest with not a lot of experience. However here, much like in The Force Awakens, Kylo and Rey both force-reach for Anakin's lightsaber and it breaks in two. This tells me that they're now both equals. Darkness rose and light met it.

• Yet another curveball this film throws is the fact that this is the first Star Wars movie without a traditional lightsaber battle. To me Star Wars was always about lore, lightsaber duels and space battles like the scale of the Battle of Yavin. 
  

• This is right about where Holdo makes the ultimate sacrifice in what was probably the coolest scene of the movie. She goes into lightspeed and flies right through the First Order fleet. In the two theater showings that I attended, the silence of the scene was filled with gasps and awe and rightly so.

• DJ (which could easily stand for "Deathstick Junkie") shows hints of having a heart of gold when he gives back Rose's trinket that he had asked for earlier as a deposit for his services. However, he does ultimately sell them out but it wasn't anything personal. Like he said, they blow you up today and you just blow them up tomorrow. 
  

• When Finn and Rose were saved by that AT-ST, I thought that was DJ once again redeeming himself but it wasn't. That was BB-8 saving lives and wrecking shop. DJ merely fucked off with his First Order money never to be seen again. 

• DJ's dark deal in the end cost a lot Resistance fighters their lives when they were seemingly safe on their way to Crait. He says that he's disinterested in either side but when surrounded by war, one must eventually choose a side (This was a moral on a Clone Wars episode). DJ chose to make a deal with the First Order to survive the encounter but the lives that are lost as a result pretty much align him with the bad guys whether he likes it or not.
  

• Some people thought that DJ was a needless character but from my vantage point, DJ seemed to be the thing (or person) that ultimately helped Finn make his choice to fight alongside the Resistance.

• Phasma and her troops are about to execute Finn and Rose when they are saved by a rogue AT-ST who takes out everyone but Phasma. I definitely thought that it was DJ inside of the chicken-walker as a tropey way to save the day but no, it was in fact BB-8 that was piloting the walker. I actually didn't mind this since it was reminiscent of R2 saving everybody's life from the jaws of death in almost every Star Wars movie beforehand. Proving that droids don't just make everyday life easier but they can actually save your life. They pay for themselves!
  

• Another question that came out of The Force Awakens was if Phasma survived the trash compactor (I'm sure that everybody knew that she did) and if she would be focused more in this film as a fearless ass-kicker. Outside of that duel with Finn, she is Boba Fett'ed once more and seemingly killed. 
  

• You could make a case that she survived but there was a certain way that they filmed that scene where her helmet is cracked with her eye visible and the exchange between Finn and her of "You were always scum"/"Rebel scum", it had a sense of finality behind it. she may really be gone. Although anything is possible.
  

• Finn and Rose escape on an AT-ST which runs over all sorts of dangerous fire and burning debris. This scene with the music (and the chase/escape scene on Canto Bight for that matter) reminded me a lot of a Steven Spielberg movie. Like A LOT.
  

• The film cuts to a shot of Snoke with his tongue LITERALLY hanging out of his mouth in the most cartoonish way possible. There should have been text over him that read "Snoke wasn't shit" with a little arrow pointing in his direction.
  

• Hux discovers the carnage inside the throne room and sees Kylo lying on the ground. He discreetly reaches for his blaster as Kylo comes to as Hux reconsiders and re-covers his blaster. Very funny moment. I love the dynamic between these two. Will Kylo be the one that ultimately kills him in Episode IX? I almost that that he was going to do it in this scene when he force chokes Hux in very Vader-esque fashion.

• The Resistance arrive on Crait and so does Finn and Rose on an AT-ST that is being systematically destroyed. The walker makes it inside of the rebel base but the Resistance don't stop shooting at it which I liked because how do they know that Finn and Rose are in there?
  

• They establish that there's only one way into this base. The crystal foxes know of another one but it's not human accessible.

• We get strong Hoth vibes here from the troops getting into position, to the music, to guys looking through binoculars to the walkers themselves. Only this "Hoth" battle is the end of this movie.
  

• The aforementioned binoculars guy leaves a trail of red salt in his tracks. A soldier tastes the ground and confirms that it's salt which would be an important clue for later. Also, the guy next to salt guy is Rogue One director, Gareth Edwards.

• The Resistance fly out on cropdusters or what I like to call "Saltspeeders" which are dilapidated speeder-like craft that track a trail of salt behind them making for cool visuals. These things don't stand a chance against the First Order as I cannot recall an instance where they proved even the least bit effective. At least the rebels found a way to take down AT-AT walkers with a snowspeeder. These things here looked cool in a broken way but were ultimately useless.
  

• The Resistance begin to be picked apart by TIE fighters. Things look bleak when the Millenium Falcom suddenly swoops in for the save (wait a minute, this is just a typical pro wrestling angle.) and succeeds in drawing the TIE fighters away from the battleground. Why? Because Kylo Ren, in one his best-delivered lines demands this his troops "Blow that piece of junk...OUT OF THE SKY!!!". Finn confirms right after that the First Order really hates that ship.
  

• Now comes one of my favorite scenes from this movie which is the TIE fighters chasing the Falcon through the crystal salt mines. The John Williams score had a lot to do with it as the score called back the music from A New Hope's TIE fighter attack on the Falcon and Return of the Jedi's Falcon trench run. It was so beautifully familiar and welcome that it was the only scene of the movie where I shed a literal tear of joy. Some may call it fan service but it was a good time had by me so I don't really care in this instance.
  

• Speaking of music cues, there were several interesting ones in this film. I couldn't make out if they brought back the Snoke theme that was reminiscent of the Sidious opera scene in Revenge of the Sith but they definitely used the Palpatine/Dark Side theme for Snoke. It really made me pause for a second and wonder. Speaking of Episode III, I heard a tweaked or reworked version of The Battle of Heroes near the beginning of the movie (I haven't found it in the actual film yet but it's in the beginning of the soundtrack).

• The Resistance realize that they're no match for the mini Death Star cannon and all peel off minus Finn who makes the choice to drive his speeder right into that cannon with a blind, passionate, vengeful purpose. It would have been useless since he probably would have been destroyed before making contact with the cannon.

• Rose slams her ship into Finn's to save him from suicidal annihilation. Finn runs to her speeder and she comes to. He asks her why she did what she did and she says that the way to victory is not through fighting what they hate but saving what they love. She kisses Finn as the walkers blow up a piece of resistance (are they rebels at this point?) merchandise in a bright blaze that provides Finn and Rose with a pretty romantic back drop.
  

• As far as the love thing goes, I believe that there is a loophole here. Although Rose did say that the path to victory was through saving what they love, she didn't actually say that she loved Finn. She's definitely on her way there but probably wasn't truly there. It's like in Speed when Annie says that relationships that start under intense circumstances never last. Perhaps Rose just caught up. It's also similar to how in Attack of the Clones when Anakin tells Padme that as a Jedi, he is encouraged to love. He clearly wants the girl but he hasn't truly dropped the "L" bomb yet.

• After the kiss, Rose passes out into what I assume is a coma. I had actually thought that she died but it appears that she has suffered Finn's fate from The Force Awakens. Maybe she'll wake up naked in a bag suit leaking water in Episode IX?
  

• During the previous scene, I was wondering why no one in any of the walkers looked over to the right to see these two resistance fighters hanging out and was just like "Oh, look over there. Blast them a couple of times."

• Leia sits back in defeat and says that she has lost all of her hope. This cues in Luke to walk in from god knows where to sit down with Leia. She tells him not to say anything because she already knows what he's going to say and that is that she changed her hair. He confirms this by saying that it looks nice this way. Luke says that he's here to face Ben Solo and that he can't save him. Leia tells him that she held out hope for so long but she knows that her son is gone. Luke tells her that no one is never really gone. Doesn't this contradict what he just said about not being able to save Ben? I really do like that line though, in light of Carrie Fisher's passing. It's been over a year and it still hurts. Imagine that. Someone that I've never met in my life and her passing hits me as if she was close family.
  

• Luke walks by and winks at C-3P0 after the golden droid simply utters the name "Master Luke" which unleashes a torrent of feels throughout my body. 
  

• Luke walks out into the battlefield. Literally one man versus an entire army and literally one man walking out with a laser sword to face the entire first order.

• Kylo tells his troops to focus every gun that they have on Luke as they unleash an unimaginable barrage on the Jedi master. They overdo it so much that Hux has to scream for his troops to stop. It appears that Luke is deader than dead. Kylo sits back and almost has a look on his face of inner turmoil. As if he's playing KOTOR and picking all the dark side answers without relent just to see the dark side ending but a little piece of him is dying throughout the way.
  

• Fuck all that conflict stuff though, Luke is still alive and even gives Luke a little Jay-Z brush-that-dirt-off-your-shoulders action. That definitely got a pop from the crowd in my theater.

• Kylo orders his men to take him down to him as Hux advises Kylo (Hux refers to him as the Supreme Leader which is a detail I didn't notice at first) not to get distracted. Kylo simply force pushes Hux away and makes for the Jedi master.

• It's high noon on Crait as Luke and Kylo face off. Kylo mockingly asks if Luke came back to forgive him and save his soul. Luke says no. They prepare for battle. Kylo has a touch of dark side decay going on on his face. 
  

• Poe figures out that Luke is stalling the First Order in order so that the surviving Resistance members (are they rebels at this point?) can escape. They believe that the crystal foxes might show them another way out. They indeed do but the way out isn't large enough for humans. Luckily, Rey manages to find their exit from the outside and uses the force to move the rocks to lead the rebels to freedom. (Rey was like "LOL, lifting rocks")
  

• Kylo lunges at Luke who does nothing but evade all of Kylo's strikes. Luke even pulls a Neo and does the Matrix move to evade a saber strike. Kylo tracks up red salt whenever he moves his foot on the ground. Luke does the same but he isn't tracking any red salt.
  

• Luke tells Kylo that he failed him and that he's sorry to which Kylo petulantly replies "I'M SURE YOU ARE!". He adds that the war is over, the resistance is dead and when he kills Luke, he would have killed the last Jedi. Interesting to note that Kylo considers Luke to be the last Jedi and doesn't seem to consider Rey as one. Perhaps he still holds out hope to turn her. 

• Similar to what he told Rey earlier on Ach-To, he tells Kylo that everything that he just said was wrong. The rebellion was reborn today, the war is just beginning and he will not be the last Jedi.

• I suppose that as far as politics are concerned, The First Order rules by default since their numbers seemingly outnumber The Resistance immensely. I suppose this situation of gross outnumberance (is that a word? It should be a word) makes the Resistance into rebels.
  

• The camera cuts to Rey who lifts the rocks and boulders from the Rebel's Crait cave and allows them all to escape. Finn makes a beeline for Rey as they share a long and warm embrace.

• Back to Luke and Kylo who says that he'll simply destroy her and him and the rest of everyone else. Luke disagrees and says the old Kenobi line. He tells Kylo that if he were to strike him down in anger then he would always be with him...just like his father.
  

• Kylo lunges at Luke who swings his lightsaber right through Luke. Another Darth Maul slicejob...or was it? Luke is standing there 100% intact. Incredulous, Kylo slowly pokes his saber through Luke who stands there unaffected. 

• The camera cuts to Luke's meditation rock on Ach-To where he is going through some FIERCE floating meditation. My theater whooped with excitement here.

• Luke does his best Han and tells Kylo "See you around, kid." before disappearing. Kylo is left alone, looks into the rebel cave and realizes what has just happened. The rebels have escaped slaughter. He lets out a passionate "NO" before the camera cuts back to Ach-To where Luke is enduring one hell of a force hangover.
  

• When Luke was walking out onto the Crait battlefield, I thought to myself "Here we are! We are finally going to see the fabled Luke Skywalker, Jedi master that we've always heard and dreamed about! He's going to take down the First Order fleet with his damn mind!". That didn't end up happening but what did was an impressive use of the force that I haven't seen much of up to this point, force projection. The usual force ghosts have that ethereal appearance that Yoda exhibited earlier with the blue light rim around them. Luke was a solid projection of himself here.
  

• I totally missed the clues of the feet on the salt the first time around. I thought that Luke had cleaned himself up a bit before flying to Crait. I noticed that his lightsaber wasn't green but I was too excited not to notice (and so was Kylo). My mind was like "Something's off here but we'll go through it all later."

• Back to hungover Luke who struggles to climb back up on his meditation rock. Right now in the theater, me and my brother (who've only been using a series of punches on the thigh and wide open-eyed glances up to this point) are just glad that he's made it out of Episode VIII alive. However, he's got a certain look on his face and a certain sound to the music that's telling us that this is about to change. The Ach-To sunset begins as Luke (and us) start to realize what's up. I let out an almost silent and Kylo Ren-esque "no". Rey and Leia share a look that they know what's about to happen to. My "no" gets a little louder and Luke finally dissapears and becomes one with the force as I let out a loud "Nooo, FUCK".
  

• He projected himself and the effort actually killed him like Kylo had said earlier in the film.
  
  
  
  

• Kylo and his forces enter the rebel base very similar to how Anakin entered the Jedi temple on Coruscant in Revenge of the Sith.
  

• Kylo enters the command room and kneels down to pick up his father's die. He looks up as one last force Skype session activates only Rey (and himself) both say nothing. Kylo has this look on this face that basically pleads with Rey and conveys that it's not too late to join him. Rey raises the Falcon doors as the force-com session is cut. Kylo commands a force with countless numbers behind it and yet he finds himself here and now fully alone. That "Please" that he said to Rey is so much more powerful now. The Han Solo/Millenium Falcon die disappear in his hands and that is the last of Kylo Ren that we see.

• We see the sacred Jedi texts on the Falcon as Finn grabs a blanket to cover up rose. Rey notices this affection and has a look on her face that seems as though she's glad that he managed to continue to do good and do good to other people.
  

• Leia sits down as Rey talks to her about how she felt Luke pass but no with sadness or pain but with peace and purpose. She looks around and asks how they can build the rebellion from this as Leia assures her that they have everything that they need.
  

• The Falcon continues travelling through hyperspace with the old Star Wars music playing. This is where the film should have ended...
  

• Cut back to Canto Bight of all places where the fathier-keeping kids are secretly at play. One is telling a tale about Luke Skywalker, Jedi master so it seems like Luke's deed rippled across the galaxy or at least to Cantonica. Their keeper barges in and breaks up the play-fest as the boy who helped Finn and Rose escape earlier goes outside and...subtly calls the broom to his hand with the force. He looks up at the sky and sees a ship go into hyperspace as the camera shows him wearing the rebel ring that Rose showed him earlier. He lifts the broom in a lightsaber pose. Strong Disney vibes here. And that is all. #ThereIsAnother

• End film. Thanks for hanging out!